


Impossible

by deerest_love



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 14:45:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19275457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deerest_love/pseuds/deerest_love





	Impossible

To wake to the warm, amber gaze of a friend whose birch-fair skin seems to glow in white sun. To behold a scintillating labyrinth of emerald branches that tremble with pulses of birdsong. To wade through glossy shrubs that light the understory with clusters of scarlet fruit, through the riot of violet that is a stand of rhododendron. To shed clothes without inhibition, and sink into pollen-sprinkled pond waters. To stroke the outstretched petals of the lotus flowers, and dive underwater just to hear that sound like rushing blood, reminiscent of a womb. Then, to splash and play and laugh with a benevolent heart, knowing only today’s light and music. Like a child in endless summer.

The nameless man breaks the surface again. Memories flash like old dreams.

***

He beheld the creature before him, comparing her to the one from long before. She looked as youthful as ever, and would hardly come up to his shoulders if she stood beside him. Her torso was twisted such that her back was hidden, but still he could see her wings peek out over her head, and their ends from between her legs as she walked. Not unlike a butterfly. She was nude, fair, graceful. She made the simplest of vocalisations:

“Um…” The first thing she said to him since their last parting. It was awkward, it was laughable, but somehow more so, it was endearing.

***

His friend wades toward him, and the memories fade like rain into earth. Her wings are open now, and they glisten rainbow pools like stained glass. She shakes out a mane of pecan hair. “Well,” she says, a smile lingering on her face. “Where do you want to go next?”

The nameless man grins, and beholds his surroundings once more. “Let’s go and see!”

And so they leave the water, and let the ticklish breeze dry their skin as they drift downwind. In time, they find themselves enclosed in a stand of Japanese maples, warm and orange; in the filtered light, it is enough that one could pretend to be walking on the sun. Seed pods and leaves twirl from above; the nameless man reaches out to try to catch them. Then the fairy lifts off and snatches them off like a flycatcher, and soon both laugh at how easy she has made the game. Even when suspended in flight, she lifts her head as she laughs, as though sharing her mirth with the sky; but despite her body language, the sound is quiet, even calm. She catches the sun from high up there, and her wings, two soft white arcs, buzz like a sleepy cicada. She begins to swoop and flip as though she were a leaf herself, a happy dancer in the air. The nameless man watches with fondness in his eyes.

***

“I see. I am sorry you were forced to change fields,” she consoled, “But at least it has enabled us to meet again.”

The man nodded. “That’s what I was thinking.” He swallowed. “Do you… Do you think you… have the time?”

“To become friends?”

“Y-yes…”

She gave a maternal smile. “How very human of you.”

***

It is forgotten again as the fairy twirls down, landing with a skater-like flourish. The nameless man applauds, and is rewarded with her sweet curtsey. Soon they continue their drifting, and take turns chasing each other down an imaginary path. The leaf litter on the ground is cool with moisture and pillow-like to their feet.

The fairy stops next to a bush that is tasseled with ruby orbs. She picks and splits one of the rose hips gently with teeth and hands, as easily as if there were a seam. She scoops out the seeds to reveal a rich persimmon interior, and she holds it out to the nameless man like she knows he will take it.

It releases its flavor as he chews; it is tart and fulfillingly full-bodied. It lingers pleasantly in his mouth as she prepares him another. The man nods at her gratefully; her face is ever soft, content as she feeds him.

Then the sun is setting, though the nameless man did not recall it starting to. His friend, once more, turns to him. The nectarine sky is softened like bleeding dye through those gorgeous wings. There is something that seems foreign in her eyes.

He remembers. He remembers wireworms, he remembers hunger, he remembers monotony. He remembers what it is like to wake up from a good dream; the spell is broken.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, her voice still lovely, still seeming to mingle with the breeze. “It was time.”

Time. He feels it rushing by him like whitewater. He remembers himself- he is Yun. He shudders.

The fairy sees his face, and she hangs her head. “Should I… be doing this?”

Yun doesn’t know if this is rhetorical. It may as well be. Trepidation has sealed his throat- six more days until this can happen again. “B-Bai,” he managed. Her name.

She looked up at him, for the first time with a look that did not know, that pleaded.

“I want you to know…”

He does not know why he is trying. No, he does know. Because he has to. Now- even though now is the worst time, a time in which the impossible will be made even harder. He knows that by the pain that enfolds him, the frightfully banal thoughts of tomorrow. Still, he drops to one knee and throws his arms around his companion, wanting to hold her, to at least teach her something about himself. That he can love her, even now.

Maybe, for the first time, he did touch her before she disappeared. Just for an instant. Maybe it was really her lips that left him with a taste like cool resin- but it could have just been the forest air, too.

The man thinks his calloused hands are trying to clench fists, but he is shaking too much to be sure of it. He bites down on his lip. He watches as the colour drains from the forest with the sunlight. He shuts in his tears, just to get back into practise.


End file.
